Is it really about Koch?

By BEN SMITH

02/22/2011 11:32 AM EST

The battle in Wisconsin has been, on both sides, a festival of opportunistic credit-seeking and finger-pointing, with groups on both sides rushing to take credit and, simultaneously, being cast as outside agitators.

The White House and DNC walked that line over the weekend, and now it's Koch Industries' turn, as Democrats allege that the energy giant -- whose owners, Charles and David Koch, back Americans for Prosperity, which has helped lead counter-demonstrations -- stands to benefit specifically from the proposed legislation. In particular, critics say, a provision in the legislation that allows the sale of state energy assets without a bidding process is written to hand state assets over to the Kochs.

A reality check: Governor Scott Walker has been battling public sector unions for years, and didn't need a Koch conspiracy to encourage him. And indeed, there's no specific indication that Koch is shopping for energy assets. Koch Industries' lobbying disclosures, filed under Wisconsin's fairly strong transparency laws, indicate that the company is lobbying this year on two bills -- but not on the new labor law.

"Any suggestion that Koch Industries has some financial interest in the outcome of the legislation at issue in Wisconsin is false," company spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia said in an emailed statement.

Of course, Americans for Prosperity -- a Koch group -- is pushing the bill. Of course Koch, a conservative outfit, backs Walker. But the combined desire of AfP to take credit and of Democrats to give it to them shouldn't be mistaken for actual causation. The Koch group is, in a way, like the DNC: Rushing to aide -- and to seek credit for -- a conflict that clearly developed organically.